The funeral procession for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi started this morning, less than 48 hours after his helicopter crashed into a mountainside in the country’s northwest on Sunday evening.
Thousands of mourners filled the streets of Tabriz this morning, flanked by heavily armed guards, as Iranian officials and dignitaries gave speeches, played music and prayed for the fallen president.
The crowd then parted to make way for a white truck carrying the coffins of Raisi and his Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, along with seven others killed in the crash.
The bed of the truck was wide open to display the coffins decorated with images of the dead and covered in flowers, and mourners were seen running alongside to pay their respects.
Some stretched out their arms and frantically tried to touch the coffins, but were pushed away by guards.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said yesterday that the country will observe five days of mourning from today after the fatal crash.
But the regime is said to be furious as many Iranians at home and abroad celebrated Raisi’s death, with social media flooded with images of revelers apparently delighted by the news.
The bed of the truck was wide open so that the coffins could be displayed, decorated with images of the dead and covered with flowers
Mourners rush to touch the coffins of the dead
Thousands of mourners gathered in the streets of Tabriz this morning
People walk past a billboard with a photo of the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 21, 2024
The funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi
A white truck carrying the coffins of Raisi and his Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, along with seven others who died in the crash, drives through Tabriz.
Men hang a huge portrait of the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi outside the Iranian embassy in Baghdad on May 20, 2024
Raisi, 63, was declared dead by Iranian media yesterday morning, along with Abdollahian, the governor of East Azerbaijan province, Malek Rahmati, and during Tabriz’s Friday prayers, Imam Mohammad Ali Alehashem.
Two pilots and three other Iranian officials and guards were also killed in the crash in the country’s mountainous northwest.
Drone footage from Iranian and Turkish news agencies revealed that the helicopter – an old US-made Bell 212 – had blown apart upon landing. shared by the Iranian Red Crescent showed solemn rescuers carrying bodies on covered stretchers from the forest around the crash site.
Iran has not yet provided any details about the crash or any explanation other than a simple statement about the bad weather conditions.
But Iranian aircraft, especially Western-supplied models like the US helicopter carrying Raisi, are notoriously unsafe and in a state of disrepair as the Islamic Republic has long been subject to Western sanctions that prevent access to desperately needed spare parts.
It is not known when Raisi’s helicopter was manufactured, but the Bell 212 has been in use by governments around the world for more than 50 years, first entering service in the early 1970s.
According to the Islamic Republic’s constitution, new presidential elections must be called within 50 days.
But Raisi’s death is sure to unleash a power struggle, with a variety of ambitious candidates now vying for power.
Rescue team members work at the site of the crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Varzaghan, northwestern Iran, Monday, May 20, 2024
Iranian rescuers work near the wreckage of the crashed helicopter of the Iranian president, in the area of Varzaghan, Tabriz province, southwestern Iran, May 20, 2024
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been declared dead after rescuers found a helicopter carrying him and other officials that crashed in Iran’s mountainous northwest. This still image shows drone footage of the crash site
This selection of handout video footage released by Iran’s Red Cescent on May 20, 2024 shows rescuers recovering bodies at the site of President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter crash
Rescuers are seen searching the crash site
A handout photo provided by the Iranian presidency on May 19, 2024 shows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who died on Sunday
Raisi, who became president of Iran in 2021, was widely seen as a vassal of the regime and a yes-man against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
He stormed to the presidency after the 2021 elections with a large majority – but less than half of the Iranian electorate turned out to vote after many more moderate candidates were barred from running.
As a young student at a religious seminary in the holy city of Qom, Raisi took part in protests against the Western-backed Shah during the 1979 revolution.
His contacts with religious leaders in Qom made him a trusted figure in the judiciary, and at just 25 he became Iran’s deputy prosecutor.
Raisi quickly made his way to the top – and with it earned himself the nickname ‘the Butcher of Tehran’.
As deputy prosecutor and then chief prosecutor, Raisi was part of the so-called “death commission” – a group of four judges who in 1988 presided over tribunals set up to “re-try” the regime’s political prisoners.
Thousands of these prisoners were ruthlessly executed and dumped in unmarked graves. The exact number of deaths is not known, but rights groups estimate that around 5,000 people died after Raisi’s brutal judgment.
Raisi was not only loyal to the Republic and its Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, but had also built a close relationship with Iran’s then President Ali Khamenei during the 1980s.
Khamenei became Iran’s supreme leader after Khomeini’s death in 1989 and is undoubtedly responsible for charting Raisi’s path to the presidency in 2021.
After Raisi’s election, his hardline stance became even clearer.
In 2022, he ordered stricter enforcement of Iran’s “hijab and chastity law,” which restricts women’s clothing and behavior.
Under this order, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested by Iran’s “morality police” in September 2022 for wearing an “inappropriate” hijab and died in hospital three days later, sparking mass unrest.
The resulting months of nationwide protests posed one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s clerical rulers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Hundreds of people were killed, including dozens of security personnel who were part of the fierce crackdown on demonstrators, rights groups said.
